Friend,

It's been nearly three weeks since a record number of Americans — nearly 80 million! — voted to elect Joe Biden as our next president. While Joe is the clear winner of this election with 306 Electoral College votes, Donald Trump continues to fabricate baseless claims of voter fraud and refuses to concede.

Over the last four years, the president and his enablers have abused their power, ignored laws, and undermined institutions for personal and political gain. Donald Trump has fired and intimidated staff who seek to tell the truth. He attempted to extort a foreign country into digging up dirt against a political opponent. He and members of his administration ignored lawful subpoenas to testify before Congress. He has turned the White House lawn into a stage for his political theater. He has sought to interfere in the work of the Justice Department. He took money that was appropriated by Congress to fund military schools and other vital projects and diverted it to try to build a border wall that was never approved by Congress. Now, he is working on casting doubt and subverting our democracy in a blatant attempt to undo the will of the people.

I've been asked by dozens of people over the last few weeks an important question – how do we keep this type of abuse from happening again? Just as Congress passed meaningful reforms in the wake of Watergate, Congress must act swiftly and decisively to ensure this kind of abuse never occurs again. That's why I'm a cosponsor of the Protecting our Democracy Act.

Join me by becoming a citizen co-sponsor of The Protecting our Democracy Act and ensure this type of abuse never happens again.

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The Protecting our Democracy Act takes some vital steps:

First: We must prevent future presidents from acting with impunity and without consequence. That means preventing abuses of presidential pardons. It means suspending the statute of limitations on federal crimes committed by a president or vice president to make clear that no one is above the law. It means enforcing the Emoluments Clauses to prevent federal officials from profiting off of their service to the people and strengthening the Hatch Act to provide stronger enforcement and penalties for violations. It means protecting whistleblowers, preventing political interference in the work of the Justice Department, and preserving the independence of inspectors general.

Second: Congress must reaffirm its authority as a coequal branch of government. It must reassert Congress's power of the purse by strengthening the Impoundment Control Act and adding penalties for failure to comply. It must create tools to enforce congressional subpoenas and limit presidential declarations of emergencies. And importantly, it must re-establish Congress as a check on presidential overreach and corruption.

Finally: Congress must take meaningful steps to prevent foreign intervention in our elections and fix our broken campaign finance system. Until corruption is brought into the light and ultimately rooted out, we can expect nefarious actors to continue working to interfere and undermine our electoral process. Campaigns should be required to report any attempts by foreign actors to influence American elections – and there must be significant penalties for accepting or encouraging foreign influence.

Sadly, Donald Trump's actions have provided a roadmap for future attempts to undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. That's why it is vitally important for us to come together and shore up our institutions to ensure the abuses we have seen over the last four years are never allowed to happen again. Join me as a citizen co-sponsor of the Protecting our Democracy Act to ensure that reforms are a priority in the new year.

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Let me be clear: come January, the fight to protect our democracy is far from over. As our region's representative, I am committed to protecting our democratic republic from the abuse of power.

I hope you'll join me in that fight.

Derek


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People for Derek Kilmer
PO Box 1381
Tacoma WA 98402 United States

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